1 Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an internal combustion engine having connecting assembly for a cylinder head, and including at least one air- or gas-conducting part connected to at least one flow opening of the cylinder head, especially an exhaust manifold or an intake manifold, with at least one sealing element being disposed between the air- or exhaust-gas-conducting part and the cylinder head.
2 The Prior Art
Intake or exhaust manifolds are usually fastened by means of screws or clamping apparatuses to the cylinder head, with at least one screw or clamping apparatus being provided per channel opening or component to be fastened. These screws or clamping apparatuses are mostly arranged in direct vicinity to the channel openings in order to generate the respectively high pressing forces under mostly limited component stiffness of the intake or exhaust manifold, which pressing forces are usually required by the seal installed between the two components to be connected. This strongly limits the freedom of construction because the screws for installing or removing the intake and exhaust manifold need to be accessible. As a result of the required screw clearances and the workspace for applying the tool, the overall space for placing the further required components and the design freedom of the components to be installed will be influenced disadvantageously.
DE 10 2008 029 020 A1 describes an internal combustion engine, comprising a cylinder head having an integrated exhaust manifold, on which an exhaust-conducting unit is mounted by means of a clamping flange apparatus, with the clamping flange apparatus comprising a cylinder flange associated with the cylinder head and a unit flange associated with the unit, with the flanges being pressed against one another in the direction of the flange plane. In order to achieve this, at least one clamping bridge is provided which is mounted in the direction of the flange plane, engages beyond the cylinder flange and the unit flange and acts by at least one bevel in a clamping manner on the two flanges. The clamping bridge is directly screwed together with the cylinder head via screws.
It is disadvantageous that threaded bores need to be provided on the cylinder head, which increases the production effort on the one hand and limits the freedom of design on the water cooling jacket on the other hand.
Further clamping solutions for fastening exhaust manifolds to cylinder heads are known from the publications of DE 10 2007 002 825 A1, WO 09/003668 A1, DE 10 2004 010 815 A1, DE 10 2004 037 865 A1, DE 102 51 771 A1, DE 44 30 339 A1, DE 195 10 718 A1, DE 196 53 908 A1, DE 42 05 454 A1 or DE 23 31 510 A1. In most of these solutions, screws are provided for fastening however and a relatively large amount of mounting space is required.
It is the object of the invention to avoid these disadvantages and to develop an alternative possibility for fastening for an air-or gas-conducting part connected to the cylinder head, with which the mounting effort and the required space can be reduced.